Once Upon A Time – Nimue

Last week we watched as Rumplestiltskin finally became heroic enough to extract the Excalibur from the stone, fulfilling Emma’s quest.

But why does she need Excalibur? Well in this weeks episode we get an insight to the history of the sword and we witness how Merlin became an all powerful wizard – Even if he did become trapped in a tree trunk for hundreds of years.

We are taken back 1000 years before ‘the age of Arthur’ where we see Merlin and a friend desperately trekking through the desert trying to find water to quench their thirst.

In their desperate attempts to find water, they scramble across the land to the cup and Merlin’s friend goes to drink the water – Bad idea!

The friend poofs into a burning cloud of ash before Merlin’s eyes.

Not caring whether he lives or dies, Merlin prays to God before grabbing the cup and taking a sip – Luckily for him he is the chosen one and gains his powers, turning the desert into a beautiful woodland.

Jump forward 500 years and Merlin has created a peaceful village out of the woodland and invites villagers who need to be healed of their illnesses.

At this point we are finally introduced to Nimue, the one Merlin mentioned in the previous episode to be the only help for Emma.

When asked what she needed from Merlin, her reply was revenge on a masked man named Vortigan, an all evil, powerful Dark One. He ends up terrorising her village, burning the whole thing to the ground killing everyone.

For her revenge she wanted to plant Middlemist flower seeds which she saved from the fire so that he couldn’t have the satisfaction of destroying the whole village.

From that day on, Merlin was smitten by the woman, which several months later would come round and bite the wizard.

Merlin was so in love, the idea of being immortal for eternity saddened him leaving him wanting to give up his powers for good.

Thus came the idea of Excalibur!

Merlin wanted to forge a blade out of the Holy Grail which could extract his power, leaving him a mere mortal like Nimue so they could get married and live a normal life together.

They both set out on a quest to Nimue’s old village to find the Flame of Prometheus which Merlin would use to forge Excalibur but they end up being followed by the creepy masked man, Vortigan.

A fight breaks out between the them and Nimue bravely steps in, wanting to protect Merlin.

Unfortunately for her this isn’t a wise decision and she ends up dying after being stabbed in the heart by the masked devil.

Merlin sobs over his lost love and attempts to kill Vortigan but because he only uses his powers for good, he can’t bring himself to kill the monster.

PLOT TWIST!

Nimue isn’t actually dead and grabs Vortigan’s heart out of his chest!

When they were searching the burnt down village, Nimue secretly drank from the Holy Grail, giving her eternal life!

With Vortigan’s heart in her hand, Merlin pleads for her to not do this. Killing Vortigan will only turn her dark and she will be lost forever.

Unfortunately for Merlin, Nimue craves the power and crushes Vortigan’s heart, turning her into the first and all powerful Dark One!

Knowing what the Excalibur could do to Merlin and herself she smashes it in two so he will never be able to retract the evil out of her.

Fast forward to Camelot where Emma is trying her hardest not to let the darkness in.

Herself and Merlin set off on the same quest by searching for the Flame of Prometheus to bind Excalibur and the Dark Ones dagger which will allow them to snuff out Emma’s darkness.

Although, Merlin warns Emma that the quest won’t be an easy one as she will have to let ALL previous Dark One’s into her mind for her to be able to summon the greatest and most powerful one of them all – Little does she know that is in fact Nimue, Merlin’s one true love.

Merlin warns her that if she lets the darkness in, she may end up killing him, turning her into the greatest and most powerful Dark One of all time.

Meanwhile, back at the castle in Camelot, Regina and the others have been set the task to find the Dark One’s dagger so Merlin can reunite it with Excalibur.

Fortunately for them, Zelena knows the safest way to where the dagger is being kept, shocking everyone with her helpful attitude as she is currently being held captive by her sister Regina after she killed Emma’s first love Neil and attempted to kill others in Storybrooke.

The others accept her help as they believe her pregnancy is turning her into a nice person – Very big mistake!

Zelena led Regina and the others into a trap and kidnapped Mary Margret as leverage in her plot to be free of her sister.

Back in the forest on their quest, Merlin and Emma finally find the old village where Nimue became the first Dark One.

Upon summoning the original Dark One, Emma finally discovers it to be Merlin’s true love and is truly shocked by the revelation.

Without wanting to, she feels the force of the dark power coming from the all evil presence in front of her and goes to strangle Merlin so she can steal Excalibur.

Pleading for his life, Merlin informs Emma that Excalibur may be able to extract the darkness from people but in the wrong hands, it could snub out all that is good in the world.

Fortunately for him, Emma has never been the same as the others and is able to fight against her dark urges even after Nimue taunts her about dark magic being the better side.

Emma is able to defeat Nimue and steals the flame which they will be able to rejoin the Dark One dagger back with Excalibur.

Unfortunately, on their way back from celebrating their victory, Merlin suddenly disappears!

PLOT TWIST – Turns out, Zelena had in fact become an ally of Arthur’s!

Zelena had helped forge Merlin’s name into the broken Excalibur so now Arthur was able to control Merlin, just like how anyone holding the Dark Ones dagger could control them.

In return, Arthur freed Zelena from her sisters captivity.

Fast forward to present day Storybrooke and we see all the previous Dark Ones watch on as Emma rejoins both parts of Excalibur together.

They watch as she holds in her hands the most powerful weapon known to man!